Addressing liberal trolls and the #openweb tensions, the influx of users following the #X (#TwitterMigration) has highlighted tensions on the #openweb, particularly the behaviour of “liberal trolls.” Who advocates for performative inclusivity and impose hierarchical thinking, creating friction in existing working decentralized paths. Their inflowing presence derails conversations, inhibit grassroots growth, and introduce #mainstreaming patterns of control. So what can we do with this mess making:
- Reframing the debate: 90% Open, 10% Closed offers a sorted balanced vision. It contrasts sharply with the #encryptionists’ damaging push for 90% closed, that prioritizes secrecy over collaboration. To mediate this mess, we need to promote openness as resilience to grow diversity. This “native” path has power, it resists co-optation by authoritarian forces, a core concern of #encryptionists. We need to highlight success stories, examples where openness has thrived, such as Mastodon’s ability to scale post-Twitter Migration with little compromise. Then build bridges to encourage conversations between open and closed proponents. Identify shared values, while challenging “common sense” that to often blocks any collaboration.
- Combatting liberal troll dynamics that wield performative outrage and self-righteousness as tools for control, sidelining the “friction” of radical workin paths. To mitigate this deadening, we need community moderation with clear values, with moderation policies rooted in grassroots principles – collaboration, inclusion, and respect for dissent. A first step is to make these values explicit and widely understood. Empower the margins of radical communities to counterbalance dominant narratives. Ignore the noise, trolls thrive on attention, so strategic non-engagement, combined with clear policies, reduce their disruptive influence.
- Addressing the #geekproblem blocking, a resistance to radical ideas and community-focused solutions, creating unspoken barriers to progress in tech spaces. We need strategies to overcome, by making tech accessible to non-geeks with user-friendly with intuitive experiences to diminish the gatekeeping power of overly technical #UX. Distributed leadership encourages non-hierarchical, collective decision-making to prevent a few individuals from exerting outsized influence over grassroots tech projects. Education and outreach is needed to equip newcomers with the tools and knowledge to navigate #openweb spaces, reducing reliance on the blocking geek-centric paths.
- Resisting destructive cult paths, #NGO-driven power grabs and “cult-like” behaviour. This is done by seeding decentralized power structures to encourage healthy conflict and normalize constructive disagreements as part of openweb culture. To reduce the potential for groupthink and “common sense” authoritarian tendencies. We need to recognize and resist co-optation by staying vigilant against efforts to co-opt grassroots movements for institutional and corporate interests.
- We need proactive strategies to building radical resilience, to mediate the blocking energy and empower radical tech. Creating paths for experimentation, this might include enclaves where radical ideas can be tested without suppression and co-optation. Foster allyship by building alliances between radical movements and pragmatic reformers to amplify shared goals. Challenge “Common Sense” imposition of “practical” solutions that dilute grassroots paths and values. Embrace creative, “mad and bad” ideas to disrupt this status quo blocking.
In conclusion, the path of the #openweb depends on striking a balance between openness and security, grassroots experimentation and mainstream scalability, decentralization and coordination. The paths we need is to active mediate the mess brought into our spaces by liberal trolls, encryptionist ideologies, and the #geekproblem. If we do this we can create a more resilient digital ecosystem that we need in the era of #climatechaos and social brake down.
Currently, we have too much prat energy on these paths, so a bit of composting is needed.
